Chapter 3740 — Sorry About That

Had he known that some interloper would come charging out of nowhere halfway through, he should have named his price then and there and sealed the deal without another word—there had been no need to drag things out and have the man fetch the goods over for inspection!

Now look where it had gotten him: outsmarted by his own cleverness, forced into a bidding war, hoist by his own petard!

But what was done was done, and regret was useless now. The key was to win the Star Ink Stone at any cost—it was his greatest hope for rising to prominence in the future. If he let it slip, he might spend the rest of his life in mediocrity. He absolutely could not let it slip through his fingers.

"Shopkeeper, I think you had best ask first whether this fellow can actually produce a thousand spirit jades. On that point, I have my doubts!" Yu Zhe said, casting Wei Zhao a hostile glance.

The shopkeeper was taken aback. After sizing Wei Zhao up from head to toe, he seemed to share the doubt—after all, in that plain, unremarkable getup, Wei Zhao hardly looked like a man who could casually pull out a sum as vast as a thousand spirit jades.

Wei Zhao smiled and set the bag he had been carrying behind him on the counter, opening it wide for the two of them. It was packed full of superior spirit jades brimming with spiritual energy—he had prepared it specially before entering the inner street.

Yu Zhe was startled. He truly had not expected this shabby, unremarkable rogue cultivator to produce so many spirit jades at a moment's notice!

Yet after a closer look, mockery crept onto Yu Zhe's face. He sneered, "That bag of spirit jades does look like a lot, but are there a thousand in there? Ha—I'd say not even half. And you have the nerve to bring that out and make a fool of yourself?"

The shopkeeper made a careful estimate and nodded. "By my eye there are about four hundred spirit jades in this bag—a good deal short of a thousand. Sir, if these are all the spirit jades you can produce, then I am afraid I must apologize."

"Heh... the shopkeeper has a keen eye." Wei Zhao smiled faintly.

There were indeed only four hundred spirit jades in there. He still had some stored in his jade pendant's space, and he had even just gotten two hundred from Chen Blackbeard, but some of those were spent jades, thin on spiritual energy; they had been tossed into the pendant's space only recently, and the energy had not yet had time to fill them.

"Since you can't produce a thousand spirit jades, what are you doing butting in here? What a waste of time!" Yu Zhe breathed a sigh of relief at those words. Turning to the shopkeeper, he said, "In that case, I bid a thousand spirit jades. The Star Ink Stone is mine."

"Indeed." The shopkeeper nodded with some regret. He had thought this would be a fine contest between two tigers, from which he might skim a good many spirit jades; who would have guessed that Wei Zhao was merely here for show, able to produce only four hundred spirit jades, with no competitive power at all—his hopes had been raised for nothing.

But just as the shopkeeper and Yu Zhe were about to close the deal, Wei Zhao suddenly spoke up: "One moment. What if, on top of the four hundred spirit jades, I add these two Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills?"

Both men froze in unison, and then they saw that an antique little box had appeared in Wei Zhao's hand—when, they could not say.

Yu Zhe's heart sank. The Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill was also sold at the Hong Clan Trading Company, priced at four hundred spirit jades apiece—meaning those two pills were worth a full eight hundred spirit jades. Add the bag of four hundred spirit jades he had just produced, and Wei Zhao's bid amounted to twelve hundred spirit jades, far surpassing his own thousand!

Of course, he did not think Wei Zhao was bluffing. The box lid had not been opened, but if there were nothing inside, Wei Zhao would be making a thorough fool of himself.

"Sir, what do you say?" The shopkeeper turned to Yu Zhe.

The meaning was plain: if he could not bid higher, then this one-of-a-kind Star Ink Stone would go to Wei Zhao.

Yu Zhe fell silent for a moment, then shot Wei Zhao a venomous glare. He was determined to have the Star Ink Stone; he would not suffer anyone else to lay a finger on it!

Yet Wei Zhao never once looked his way. In a place like this, spirit jades did the talking—whoever held the most held the right to speak. Glaring at him now was of no use to Yu Zhe at all.

"I bid twelve hundred spirit jades!" Yu Zhe finally ground out through clenched teeth. "The Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills are worth four hundred spirit jades—but that is the selling price. I imagine the buyback price is not so high, is it?"

Twelve hundred spirit jades—that was the limit of what he could scrape together. Not one jade more was possible.

Even usurers who lent at exorbitant interest had to size up their man. If a borrower was plainly beyond his capacity to repay, they simply would not lend—otherwise the money was as good as thrown into the water, and killing the man would not recover the debt.

And though Yu Zhe was an inner disciple of the Skyward Pavilion, his background was nowhere near as deep as that of a young lord like Xu Lingchong. Ordinarily he could scrape together a thousand spirit jades at most; two hundred more was already a favor granted out of personal regard. To ask for anything beyond that was utterly out of the question.

Still, though he could bid no more than twelve hundred spirit jades, Yu Zhe remained confident he could seize the Star Ink Stone.

For although Wei Zhao's four hundred spirit jades plus two Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills were in theory likewise worth twelve hundred spirit jades, one must not forget: four hundred spirit jades apiece was the Hong Clan Trading Company's own selling price.

That is to say, to the Hong Clan Trading Company, a single Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill cost far less than four hundred spirit jades to make. In their eyes, three hundred would already be the absolute ceiling of its worth.

So the two pills Wei Zhao had produced were worth six hundred spirit jades at most in a setting like this. Add the four hundred spirit jades, and his bid amounted to only a thousand—naturally no match for his own solid twelve hundred!

In truth, by that reasoning, Yu Zhe reckoned a bid of eleven hundred spirit jades would already have been enough to outstrip Wei Zhao. But he chose to name his limit outright in one breath. To make certain of the Star Ink Stone, he was staking everything.

Sure enough, the shopkeeper nodded and said to Wei Zhao, "That is correct. The selling price of the Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pill is four hundred spirit jades, but if you wish to use it to settle the account, it must be reckoned at the buyback price—three hundred spirit jades each. Two pills plus four hundred spirit jades comes to a credited value of one thousand spirit jades."

After a pause, the shopkeeper added, "Of course, if another party were also bidding only a thousand spirit jades, we would still favor your two Foundation Establishment Barrier-Breaking Pills—it would save us some trouble in restocking. But as it stands, this gentleman bids twelve hundred spirit jades, so I am very sorry." (To be continued...)

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